March 2011

L’Chaim!

Passover begins on April 19 this year and continues for a week. Often this is the only time of the year when many people buy kosher wines. Traditionally, among Jews who are less than totally observant (you know who you are: the ones who see the inside of a synagogue once or twice a year at the High Holy Days and for an occasional bar mitzvah), this is the one week of the year when kosher wines are consumed. The seder wouldn’t be the same without the blessing over the wine, and the wine has to be kosher.

Most of you blame this short-lived annual spurt of religiosity on the wine—the memory of syrupy sweet Concord grape wine in a squat, square bottle still being fresh in your sensory memory. Well, that excuse doesn’t work any more. There is a whole crop of delicious kosher wines on the market these days, and they are not just from Upstate; they come from California, France, Spain, South Africa, Italy and Israel.

I tasted about fifty modern kosher wines and found it to be a rather pleasant experience. The overall quality was quite impressive. What follows are the wines that I liked best. These are wines that will add to the enjoyment of the seder—and would be more than appropriate all the other days of the year as well.

Barkan 2009 Classic Merlot-Argaman, Dan, Israel ($13) A fresh and pleasant wine made with a combination of Merlot and an Israeli-created hybrid called Argaman; silky smooth and juicy with plenty of charm and bright fruit flavors.
89 ROYAL WINE CORP.